This invention relates to a spray booth assembly used in various fields of industry including automobile industry for the purpose of washing, coating or chemically treating the object of desired kind, such as automobiles. There have been devised various types of assemblies heretofore for that purpose and one of such conventional spray booth assembly is shown in FIG. 1. The assembly substantially comprises closed type tunnel-like spray booth (1) (the exit and the entry are open) with a chain conveyor (2) installed in a ceiling (3) thereof a plurality of hangers (4) suspending from the conveyor (2) at required intervals and holding objects (5) to be sprayed, and a U-shaped jet pipe (6) which is branched off from a fluid supply pipe (7) at the bottom thereof and is used to spray water or chemical liquid against the objects (6). Such conventional spray booth assembly is also provided with partitions (8) for separating a ceiling room (B) from a jet spraying room (A). However, the moisture of water or chemical fluid which is produced during the spraying operation spreads or infiltrates into the ceiling room (B) from the jet spraying room (A) through a hanger path (9) formed between partitions (8) and adheres to the chain conveyor (2). Furthermore, the moisture is not removed from the ceiling room (B) because of closed ceiling structure. This causes the mechanism of the conveyor (2) to be deteriorated by rust, errosion and corrosion and shortens the life of the conveyor (2) drastically. Still furthermore, the lubricant used in the conveyor mechanism runs with water along the vertical hanger (4) and stains the objects to be washed or chemically treated, which results in poor coating.
Besides the above provision of partitions (8), conventionally repeated attempts have been made without any noticeable results to isolate the jet spraying room (A) from the ceiling space (B).
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a spray (shower) booth assembly which can overcome such shortcomings and problems afflicting conventional assemblies.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an open type spray (shower) booth assembly which can completely prevent the moisture of water and chemical liquid from infiltrating into the ceiling room and ill-effecting the mechanism of the conveyor, and also can prevent the lubricant from dripping on the objects to be washed or chemically treated.
In summary, the spray booth assembly of this invention comprises
(a) a spray booth having a tunnel-like construction, the spray booth provided with a longitudinal slit opening on a ceiling thereof, the longitudinal slit opening forming a hanger path, (b) a hanger conveying means disposed above the ceiling of the spray booth in alignment with the hanger path, (c) a plurality of vertical hangers movably suspended through the hanger path down into the spray booth from the hanger conveying means at desired intervals, the each hanger having a lower extremity thereof provided with an object to be sprayed, (d) spray means disposed within the spray booth for spraying water or other chemical solvent onto the object to be sprayed, and (e) means for producing a vacuum zone at or below the hanger path, whereby the spray booth assembly of this invention can prevent the water or chemical moisture from flowing out through the hanger path toward the hanger conveying means.